With Great Power
by Dory
Summary: After 'The N Men' - against Jimmy's wishes, Cindy has been keeping up superhero work. However, when they meet a family known as 'The Incredibles', they may be forced back into saving the world against a mysterious woman. Is it all worth dying for?
1. CH 01: Promises

**With Great Power**

**By Jessie G. AKA Dory**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Jimmy Neutron, nor do I own The Incredibles.

**Author Note:** I strongly suggest you do not read this unless you have seen the Jimmy Neutron episode "The N Men" or haven't seen the movie "The Incredibles" as this story gives away many events of those both. Also - this is a really long chapter, I do not promise at all that all chapters will be this long, however I do make it a goal to have very long chapters. Just for future refrence. Enjoy!

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**Chapter 01: Promises**

I had in fact promised Jimmy that I would no longer use my super powers, in fact we had all promised it – for if we used them extensively like last time, we would die within hours. Jimmy had personally walked up to me as we had finished telling the town our powers would be completely gone within a number of days. He grabbed my hand tightly, and I turned around to look at him, never had I seen such a deeply concerned face.

"Please Cindy," he has begged me, "Don't – it's for the best, really."

I had rolled my eyes carelessly, "You aren't my mother Neutron, and I can take care of myself. Trust me – you will never see me lift heavy things, or fly again."

Maybe I was a little harsh, as he let go of my hand in response and walked away, still being orange with that weird green hair, I felt like I had said the wrong thing. Perhaps it was that I said I would never fly again – it sounds so depressing when you think about it. However, anyways, I had wound up lying; to the one guy I love most.

Placing my hands on the bathroom counter and staring into the reflection of my mirror, I saw the face of someone I hardly recognized. There stood an out of breath blonde girl; my hair was in a crazy mess even if it was in a pony-tail. This strange girl wore a mask to conceal her identity, her colorful costume was tattered, and all because she couldn't control what she felt was destiny. She saw someone who needed help – and suddenly before she knew it, she was addicted to saving people. Every chance she could get she dashed off into costume to save the day.

"It's for the best of the community," I muttered as I removed my mask to see a small yet noticeable scratch an inch or so under my right eye. Taking a wet washcloth and cleaned my face. Not even 8 AM and I was already dead tired from saving an old woman that morning.

Sighing, I looked deeply into the mirror, I truly did not recognize this girl, yet she stood tall and proud, "I have these powers," I said, "Who knows how long till they are gone, but as long as I have them, I must be responsible – I must save as much as I can. Great power – great responsibility," I paused and blew from the corner of my mouth so that my bangs flew off my face, "Man that sounds so cliché." I sighed again and looked at some of my bruises and battle wounds – noticing there was a nasty gash on my shoulder.

"They'll suspect something if I walk into the Candy Bar with my halter top on," I muttered, "Better get a sweater."

* * *

"We are SO dead, so very, very, very dead – and it's ALL YOUR FAULT VI!" My annoying little brother yelled at me, pacing back at forth in such an intense pace that I had to squint in order to be sure he was actually still there. 

I crossed my arms, "Lighten up speedy, mom and dad are never gonna find out," although as I said this, even I felt doubtful. Mom has this way of finding out about anything and everything – you'd think her super hero ability would be mind-reading instead of ultimate stretchiness or something. I remember when I was five and had gone invisible and nabbed some cake from the fridge – I had covered up pretty well if I do say so myself. There happened to be one tiny little crumb on my shirt – I swear it was practically next to invisible – and she figured it out. Dad on the other hand was impressed I had been able to sneak past mom in the first place with my invisibility.

Fact is – ever since my brother and I had become better engaged with our super powers, against our mother's wishes we would go out and save people at any and every chance. Actually, we had promised them quite a while ago that we wouldn't do anything – but I had shaken it off, and I assume that they may have too. While our parents were all for the super hero thing, they didn't want us to do it alone or at least without an adult. Totally unfair – if they trust I can handle my little devil of a brother Jack-Jack, you'd think they would let me handle a couple of third-rate villains. A few weeks ago my brother Dash figured it all out – that I had been sneaking out, that is. Originally, says he, that he "knew it all along" but has assumed I was doing it for my boyfriend Tony. When he caught me sneaking into bed late at night and found I was wearing my super outfit – he put two and two together. He of course made me take him along, otherwise he'd tell mom – an annoyance he is, but it is sort of nice to have someone else to back me up.

Anyways, Dash and I had been nailing some lame robbers – and the whole thing resorted into a collapsed building. Chalk one up for getting dad's traits. The whole thing was a hideous mess, so of course the media showed up – and the media means pictures in the newspaper or breaking story headlines on the 6 o'clock news. No way to conceal our nightly-hero business if mom and dad see familiar masked-faces in tomorrow morning's newspaper. So I turned invisible and Dash grabbed my hand and ran – now we're somewhere deep in the city – due to my brother's excellent sense of direction (not).

Leaning against the wall I gave a deep sigh, "Mom and dad won't figure it out – we got out way before anything bad happened, didn't we?"

I could suddenly see my brother again who had slowed down to a regular pace, but he looked out of breath and his hair was a wind-blown mess, he gave me a horrified glance, "We knocked down a building, Violet – and it's your fault for taking me here."

"Wait-a-minute," I yelled back, hands on my hips as I advanced him, "You're the one who blackmailed me!" I began to mock him, making my voice slightly falsetto, "If you don't take me I'm tellin' mom an' dad!"

He narrowed his eyes, giving off a stubborn pout that made me laugh, I responded to his facial expressions, "Ooh you are such a baby. And you know this is your fault more now – do you have any idea where we ARE? Thanks for saving us – NOT – now we're in the middle of the city in a dark alley. BRILLANT IDEA!"

His expression fell quickly, and he looked down to his feet, ashamed, "I'm sorry," he sat down on the ground, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Oh jeez," My hand hit my head with a slight mumble, sitting down next to my brother, "It's not totally your fault, ok?" I hate it when I get that family guilt, it really sucks cause seconds ago I would have ripped the little runt's head off – and now I was trying to be miss nice-girl. Just so my little brother would stop looking so pathetically sad – even though he was probably just faking it.

"Why do we keep doing with without mom and dad anyways?" He asked while staring at the opposite wall.

I shrugged, "I don't know – I like it. There's sorta this," I searched for the word, "Addiction, I guess. I feel like I have to do it – I have to save people – it's like we were born to do it." I wasn't just fudging it so that it didn't sound so bad that we were lying – I really feel that way. Something was calling me to keep sneaking out and saving the world – and more importantly, doing it secretly.

He looked up and around where we sat, "I think I can figure out how to get us home."

I nodded, "Ok then – lets do it and hope mom and dad are fast asleep." Instantly I turned invisible and latched onto my brother as he sped into the night.

Sneaking into our house is really not that difficult – I remember when dad would come home late from 'bowling nights', he snuck in with ease almost every time. The only thing that stopped him from being successful was the fact mom knew he was gone. As far as we knew, Mom and Dad were off dreaming and hadn't looked into our rooms at all. Dash and I slowly crept through the kitchen, the two of us had promised we would stick together and if we were to get caught it'd be both of us in trouble. A strange thing for brother and sister to agree on, yes, but if only one of us had been caught mom would have figured the other had to do with it as well. If she hadn't, well then neither of us would have been willing to sneak out by ourselves.

Brilliantly, I had kept out PJs in a location in the kitchen, and it would have been easy to just switch into them from our fighting clothing – that way if a parent came down stairs we could say we were getting water. I reached inside a small cabinet for our PJs, Dash right behind me.

"Hurry," he whispered frantically.

"I am, I am," I muttered back, "Just – trying – to – reach-," but I was cut off by a loud BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!

"AH!" Dash and I screamed, falling to the ground in frenzy upon hearing the consistent alarm. As we searched for a source of the sound, suddenly realizing that a light was blinking on our suits.

"The homing device," We both gasped and suddenly the kitchen lights turned on, in the sudden brightness the two of us covered our eyes instantly. After a second of getting used to the lights, Dash and I slowly looked up to the kitchen door to see mom in her bathrobe, leaning against the door frame with the most distasteful scowl either of us had ever seen from her. Right behind her was dad, his arms crossed, and his eyes narrowed, which I really hated because when he did that his eyebrows were all I could see as his eyes seemed really, really small.

Mom held up two small objects, we instantly recognized them as the homing devices that Edna Mode had equipped our suits with. One of the versions of the homing device was to send out a loud alarm purposely for if you were trying to find someone who is lost or buried under a lot of stuff so you can find them through sound. But it also seemed to come in handy for parents who wanted to figure out where their children were.

"Do you realize what time it is?" Mom asked, venom seemed to leak from her voice. No mom, is it time for school? Of course I knew what time it was! Why else would we be trying to sneak in??

"No," I said quickly.

In response she clicked the homing devices and turned the alarms off, "I have a feeling you know what time it somewhat is."

"Well these suits don't come with watches," Dash pointed out, and my foot sneakily kicked him in the shins, "Ow!"

In a nutshell, let's just say – we ended up in trouble. And for a week we were sent away.

Jeez – if this is how heroes are treated, imagine how bad the punishment would be if we were bad guys.

* * *

So I casually walked into the Candy Bar, you know- every day drill. Except it was pretty warm out and I had a sweater on. Something a tad unusual, especially since I rarely wore anything other than my halter – in fact I don't even recall the last time I wore a sweater casually. I was surprised I had one that matched.

I spotted my friends, Libby, Jimmy, Sheen and Carl, all sitting at a booth discussing something. It seemed rather normal; despite the fact Jimmy was still orange and his hair green. However, something must have been exaggeratingly different about me, though I thought I did a pretty good job at covering it up.

"Are you ok Cindy?" Libby asked, turning away from whatever conversation that had been going on before, "You seem – paler."

"Yeah, and perhaps a little sweaty," Sheen added, "Ow!" He muttered, suddenly rubbing his knee and giving Libby a confused look – assuming that she was the one who kicked him.

I crossed my arms, "Wow you guys sure know how to welcome a girl to a table."

"Well you do seem different today," Libby shrugged, "What's with the sweater?"

I sat down next to her and grabbed a menu, hiding my face, but making it look like I wasn't doing it purposely, "It's a little nippy at my house – I just didn't feel like changing, that's all."

Jimmy was sitting across from me, I avoided his eye contact, but I could just sense his total lack of belief, he grabbed the top of my menu and forced it down onto the table.

"Rude, much?" I hissed, with my strength I yanked it out of his grip.

"What's that under your right eye?"

"Nothing," I replied too quickly for my own good.

"Which means it's probably something," he said while looking at the others who snickered slightly at this.

I slammed my menu down, hitting Carl's hand pretty forcefully.

"Ow – hey I said nothing," he muttered, holding his hand conscientiously.

However I ignored Carl's mutters and glared at Jimmy, "OR maybe nothing, means nothing."

"She's got you there," Sheen commented, raising a finger in the air.

Jimmy had this peculiar look of disbelief, it was really difficult to describe simply because it was just so weird. He stood up and grabbed my arm, "We'll be back," he said politely to the others who just shrugged as if nothing was wrong.

He walked me right outside the Candy Bar, and I let him, but as soon as we were outside I tore my arm from his grasp, "What's this about Neutron?"

He crossed his arms, "nothing, Vortex, just like you stated. Now I want to know what this nothing is," he pointed to the scar under my eye.

I shrugged, "I don't remember – haven't you ever accidentally have gotten a cut, but not have noticed?"

"Not right below the eye, that'd be pretty easy to notice," Jimmy shot back, in a slightly mean, yet rather worried voice, "And what's with the sweater? You never wear sweaters – yet it's pretty hot out and you're wearing one."

"I already answered that!"

He sighed, I could tell he was thinking because he didn't respond right away and was looking off at something random. He looked back up and me and touched my shoulder – not realizing he was touching my gash, I flinched slightly, "I'm just worried about you, Vortex," he paused, realizing I had flinched, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Eyes narrowed, he responded again, "Nothing my jet pack!" Before I thought about defense, he pulled the sleeve of my sweater down and gasped – just holding it down and starting. I gulped, he saw the gash – but – did he figure it out?

He looked up at me again, "You promised."

Quickly I moved my sweater over my shoulder again, "Promised what? You're jumping to conclusions, Neutron."

Let's just say in a nutshell, I was in trouble on Jimmy's terms.

How is it that I'm trying to be a good person, but I end up in trouble? I sure wouldn't want to find out about what the effects would be had I been doing something bad.

However, unknown to Jimmy and I at the time – we would both willingly be suiting up again soon. For something was coming; and sure enough it was something to fight against. My favorite kind of hero work, naturally.

**TO BE CONTINUED ..**


	2. CH 02: Dullest Place On Earth

**Chapter 2: Dullest Place On Earth**

**By Jessie G. AKA Dory**

Author Note: Sorry this took so long - I didn't know what else to add for this chapter and I finally decided to end it like this. This chapter is shorter, and there isn't that much of the Jimmy and Cindy story at the moment- that'll change next chapter, don't worry. )

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It was so like mom and dad to send us to Retroville for the long weekend – they do it every time we get in major trouble. To them Retroville is a nice, quiet little town that we couldn't possible get in any more trouble that we typically do. We're sent to live with our Aunt Fowl – well, she really isn't an aunt per say. She's like my mom's second cousin's cousin who married Ms. Fowl's step-sister. Yeah, a bit screwed up for sure but she seemed like a safe bet in my parents' eyes. A practically lifeless town – what bad could go on here, after all? There would be from little to nothing for my brother and I to want to save. Shows how much my parents research, Retroville has been under attack so many times there could be a TV show based on it! And for that matter, last I **google**d anyways, there was a resident genius. Sounds like exciting stuff to me – or so I think.

So there Dash and I sat, sitting in this pretty old and rusty car that was heading towards Retroville – a place, to us before we learned how wrong we were, the**_dullest_**place on earth. Nothing fun happened when we went there, it was a fairly big city, but not like where we're from. When ever anyone reads about Superheroes or watches movies about them – a lot of their daily hero work takes place in a big city. Preferably New York City for that matter. Or perhaps we just were never there at the right time? Anyways, Dash was starring out the window, his face pressed up against it as he pouted. Aunt Fowl was in the front, she had just picked us up from the airport. No idea why we needed an airplane to get here, Dash could have easily gotten us here within minutes. I was slump in my seat, arms crossed, the usual cliché teenager look, and headphones in my ears attached to my CD player.

"You kids are going to love staying in Retroville –," she made this sorta chicken sound when she finished a statement, it was really annoying, "it's so nice during this time of year."

_Nice?_ As if – it was hot, humid, and dry – what's it like in the bad times of the year?

However, I went along with it, "Yeah, very nice," though I doubt my voice tone was convincing, she didn't seem to notice.

"And the children in the neighborhood are such wonderful kids," she paused briefly and muttered in a low and hateful voice, "Except _Sheen_."

Dash peeled his face off the window and sat up, "Who's Sheen?"

"No one important," she hummed in a 'just forget it' tone.

My heel carelessly dug into the carpet of the car, "Ms. F – you said you're a teacher, right?"

"For years," she responded, obviously proud.

"_Right_," I nodded, "Do you know any nice kids, then?"

Ms. Fowl put a finger to her chin as she continued driving, "Well – I teach 5th graders, kids Dash's age, so I know a lot of nice kids his age," she paused again, "Except _Sheen_," she coughed and continued, "I think you'd get along with them though, Miss Violet."

She has this thing for calling me Miss Violet – I really don't understand it, but I nodded casually – great, little kids for me to hang out with. Granted they were only like three years younger than me – but they were STILL three years younger than me.

Dash gave a sly smile, "Well I won't be too bored," he glanced at me as if he had just read my mind – for God's sake I hope he doesn't possess a mind reading ability in that gigantic annoying scorpion head of his!

"If you can't find kids your own age Miss Violet, you can always hang with me," she gave a chuckle that was like a chicken squaking before it was about to have it's head cut off.

I of course grimaced with a fake smile as I slid down in my seat, Dash of course snickering at me the whole time. When Ms. Fowl wasn't looking I showed Dash my fist threateningly, and he instantly buttoned his yap.

* * *

"I can't believe you, Cindy – I know not everyone listens to me, despite my intellectual superiority," Jimmy rambled out loud, pacing back and forth, at his intellectual comment I snorted slightly, but he continued, "I just want to make sure you don't hurt yourself!" He insisted this so much I was wondering whether he told me this more than the others.

"You don't understand," I said in a low voice, holding the shoulder that had the gash but still covered by my clothing.

Jimmy gave a deep sigh and grabbed his green hair and held it forward to show it to me, "Don't make me mad, please Vortex, you know what happens when I get angry."

"I know Mr. Hulk-boy," Taking a hand and pushing his green hair away, "But as much as it may hurt me – the super powers I mean, it hurts me more thinking about all those lives in danger on a daily bases."

His head went down, looking at our feet and he looked back up at me, "I know – and it makes me sad thinking about it – but it's the natural order of things. We can't save everyone you know."

"Well I can **try**!" My voice rose higher, my face was turning slightly red. Maybe I should have cooled off, maybe I should have said sorry.

Suddenly we were both down on the ground– as odd as it sounds – a huge crash was heard and sent us spiraling to the ground in a rather awkward way. It was like the Earth had shifted beneath our feet and suddenly I was on my back, moaning slightly from the pain and shock, and looking up and seeing Jimmy laying on top of me. He groaned and held his head and slowly opened his eyes, only to give a bit of a squeal and jump off of me.

"Sorry!" He laughed nervously, instantly standing up.

Normally I would be prone to making some sarcastic comment, but I wasn't in the mood, "What was that sound? It seems like it was some sort of crash – somewhere in the city maybe."

Jimmy hesitated briefly and looked at me, "You don't _think_ -."

He couldn't finish his sentence; we heard more crashes this time, somewhere far off and the horrid sound of screams.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	3. CH 03: Super Strange

**With Great Power**

**By Jessie AKA Dory**

**AUTHOR NOTE:** Ok – sorry this took so long, I was having idea issues – but now it's a bit better. Here is a 3,000 - so no one can complain about it being short, hah! ;) Anyways – I hope you guys enjoy – I spent most of the middle of the night writing most of it and I think it's going well! Please review! More reviews equals more chapters!

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**Chapter 3: Super Strange**

When we got to Ms. Fowl's house it was barely into the afternoon, we took our bags up through her house and to our respective rooms. For a single woman, Ms. Fowl had a rather big house which seems a bit illogical. Not that it was any of my business, just a curious observation. My room was fairly big and very pink – a bit too pink for my taste. I prefer violet and purple – for obvious reasons.

"Miss Violet and Dash," She cawed from down stairs, Dash and I walked out to the hallway and looked down the stairs till we saw her, "As soon as ya'll are done we can go out for some food or something."

"Actually Ms. F – I was planning on _walking_ around the city, you know, getting my," he paused, "Retro-legs," he turned and sorta winked. Who knew I would suddenly be getting along with my brother of all people, I was starting to feel a tad out of character for enjoying it so much.

"Yea, me too, we'll be back for dinner though!" I pointed out cheerfully.

She seemed a little disappointed, and for that I felt a bit guilty, but she continued, "Ok then, if you ever need help though," she reached into her pocket as we walked down the steps, "just blow these whistles," she handed both of us a little whistle. When I say little, I really mean pathetically small, about the size of half my pinky.

"…Thanks, I'll remember that," Dash confusedly accepted it and put it in his pocket and I did the same with mine.

We walked outside and closed the door in a respectful manner.

"You got your suit and mask?" Dash asked, almost instantly I smacked my hand in front of his mouth.

Giving him a, 'shh' expression with my finger at my lips, he rolled his eyes and pushed my hand away, "Relax sis, the Dash, has got it all covered," he responded way too slyly – he surely is going to make some girls drool when he's older.

Crossing my arms, I just smirked, "Let's not get all excited unless there's really something to save, ok, The Dash?" I said 'the dash' in a dorky little voice, mocking him.

"Alright," he pouted.

Before even the t of his 'alright' was finished, there was a loud sounding crash that could be heard – it wasn't terribly loud because it sounded as if it was quite a ways away, but it was enough for Dash and I to exchange knowing glance.

Dash already had his mask on, "Showtime."

* * *

Sheen and Libby slammed through the exit of the Candy Bar within moments.

"OW!" Carl shrieked, and Sheen turned around to see as the door had slammed closed, Carl had been hit face first by the door.

"Oops- sorry about that Carl," Sheen smiled hesitantly as Carl stood again and pushed the door open with a sigh. Poor guy – it was always him.

Libby ignored Carl's comical impact though and looked around, "What in the name of funk was that crash? Where'd Cindy and Jimmy go?" she crossed her arms, "Man I hope that girl didn't go all loony and resorted to throwing cars at Jimmy this time. And if any of you boys need to clean your ears out I said FUNK – not -."

BOOM – CRASH – was heard in the distance again, Libby stumbled slightly from the shaking of the earth. It wasn't an Earthquake – that much she knew – it was coming from somewhere in the more populated city area.

She whipped around to stare at Carl rubbing his nose and Sheen snickering at him, both oblivious to the current situation. Probably not even hearing what Libby had been rambling about a moment ago, not even getting the chance to think she said something other than funk.

"Stop laughing Sheen," Carl warned in his wheezy voice that didn't particularly sound too threatening.

"Guys, listen to me!" Libby yelled and they both looked up at her with their typical dumbfounded expressions, "What are we going to do?"

"Do about what?" Sheen cocked his head, "it's probably Jimmy and Cindy duke-ing it out or someth-," he paused, "Actually, I would REALLY like to see that – lets go!"

In a flash of an instant, Sheen was in costume, all rip-raring to go. He got in dashing position –

"Wait – should we … _really_ be getting into costume?" Libby hesitated, "I do have it with me, but …"

"ME TOO!" Carl raised his hand, "Just lemme go change real quick, kay?" He ran back into the Candy Bar and into the bathroom.

"But that would mean we're going back into being superheroes – Jimmy warned us not to!" Libby pressed on, walking towards Sheen who stood there – dare I say it, in a thoughtful position.

Sheen placed his hand to his chin thoughtfully, "Well – yeah, but Jimmy's told us to not do a lot of things and Carl and I almost always do them anyways and we almost rarely get hurt after a while."

"Is that supposed to make me feel _almost_ better?" Libby raised an eyebrow and gave him a slightly annoyed look.

"I don't know-," Sheen cocked his head again and looked at her carefully, "Is it?"

* * *

"You are SO hypocritical Neutron," Cindy shot at him as they ran towards the crashes in full costume.

He arched his eyes and turned his head, "Me? What are you talking about – you promised ME that you wouldn't go using your powers. Right now we NEED to use our power, that's good enough of an excuse. Who knows what caused that crash, but I can tell you that we don't need any scientific data to prove we need to stop it!"

She scowled, but didn't argue as they hurried towards the scene. Within moments they were in the heart of the city – buildings were tall all around them and busy people pushed passed them through the streets.

This didn't seem right at all – it was almost like nothing had happened, and in fact most people were staring at them as if they were freaks. Well – probably at Jimmy's orange skin and green hair – and the fact they were in costume, but it still seemed weird to the two of them.

"I could have sworn I heard the crash around here -," Jimmy scratched his head in pure confusion, "This doesn't make any logical sense."

Cindy crossed her arms, "Well this was a waste – these people don't even seem like they need help -," she then pouted, "And we've lost our whole mysterious-out-of-no-where-heroes-look since we're all out in the open like this!" She stomped her foot, the harshness and her strength left a bit of an indent in the ground, "Way to go N-dork! Ruining our style," not that it really mattered that much to Cindy. Inside she knew that style didn't matter- especially when most of the time she was doing this all in secret. However to her, being out there in the open so casually for so long seemed so amateur. Besides – any chance she had to put down Jimmy at the moment, she was willing to take.

Jimmy rolled his eyes, and suddenly there was once again a huge crash, and Jimmy and Cindy both fell to the ground. Then another crash, and another, them bouncing as each crash came – almost as if a giant was taking step after step through the city.

Almost as if by cue, the people of the street started in a chaotic frenzy of panic, looking around upwards, shouting and screaming insanity! Many ran through the street, pushing past Jimmy and Cindy to get away from the direction of the sound.

Jimmy and Cindy grasped hands and slowly stood, feet firmly on the ground as each crash came. Just staring upwards as they felt like ants all of a sudden, or they at least felt like Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow in that movie in New York with the giant robots.

Jimmy glanced at Cindy with narrowed eyes, "Waste –," BOOM, "of-," CRASH, "time-," BOOM, "huh?"

She rolled her eyes, "Like I saw this coming," the two looked down to see their hands embraced the way they were, their faces turned a quick shade of red and they instantly separated.

Suddenly – they saw something the two had never witnessed before – smashing through the streets like a bull in a china shop, was the most terrifying thing they had ever witnessed before. It was like a giant silver and gray ball, there were a number of robotic legs spiraling around it, and it seemed to have a mind of its own.

Instantly Jimmy stepped in front of Cindy as if to block her from danger, holding his arms out.

"W-w-what i-i-is th-that?" Cindy stuttered uncontrollably.

Jimmy narrowed his eyes and cocked his head, "it's very familiar – I know it's some form of AI robot," he looked down to think for a brief moment, "where have I seen it before."

"All I know is that thing is incredibly scary – big – and – I really would like to go home now, thank you," she turned away and Jimmy grabbed her by the cape and he yanked her back.

"Not today Vortex – you and I are bringing this baby down."

Her eyes widened in terror as the object came closer, "You've got sixty seconds Neutron – go!"

"Don't pressure me!" Jimmy scowled back; he couldn't think when she was threatening him like that.

One of the legs plowed into the black cement barely a few feet in front of them, it's ends were claw-shaped and looked horribly sharp and scary.

"Ok," Cindy sweetly responded to the shaking and pale faced Jimmy, "Let **_THAT_** thing pressure you instead."

The two backed up slowly, as the claw retracted itself from the ground, Jimmy gulped and now suddenly wished he had gotten the others to come along with them.

"If – if I only had my backpack, I could shrink it," he yelled out loud so Cindy could here.

She muttered as they continued to quicken their backwards pace, "That's nice – but I really want to hear about the things we _CAN_ do, genius!"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" He responded.

She shook her head, "I'm sick of this – this monster is goin' down – NOW!" She separated from Jimmy and ran towards an area full of parked cars.

"Cindy!" Jimmy squealed, wishing he was angry so he could go Hulk and at least do something other than being orange.

"Come on – come on, there's always one," Cindy muttered, searching in the air at the parked cars, "AHA!"

She soared down and picked up a Hummer from it's parking place, "This otta give that robot a nice knock down," she spoke to herself as she carried it from underneath the oversized vehicle.

Jimmy at this point was running now, luckily the robot did not see him as any sort of threat otherwise it'd be attacking him. Most of the entire area was practically vacant at this point other than empty cars and stores.

"**EAT HUMMER ROBOT!**" Was suddenly screamed from the air, Jimmy looked up and smiled as Cindy hurtled the Hummer at the robot.

The Hummer flew in midair and Jimmy cheered it on, but suddenly, it all stopped. The robot turned it's head and spotted it- grabbing the Hummer with a claw and crushing it almost as if it were a simple empty soda can.

Cindy went wide eyed, "_Sh_iiiittaki mushrooms!"

The robot hurtled it back towards her, Cindy screamed in terror and dived down to duck. Barely missing it, as the Hummer crashed into the pavement, she turned to face it and gave a sigh of relief. Too soon, unfortunately, as a spare piece hit her on the side of her head and she spun out of control towards the ground.

"CINDY!" Jimmy screamed in terror as he saw his secret love fall to the ground, oh where was Sheen when he needed him?

"I got her! I got her!" A young and eccentric voice screamed in the distance and before she hit the ground she was scooped up into the speedy character's arms.

"Sheen?" Jimmy cocked his head, and he smiled and raised an arm in victory, "Way to go Sheen!"

"WATCH OUT!" A female voice shrieked, Jimmy turned and saw a large chunk of building from that of the destruction the robot was causing flying towards him. He weakly put his arm up in defense – knowing he was about to feel severe impact.

But – there was nothing as he heard a weird sound suddenly as he noticed he was on the ground now. Right in front of him was a girl holding her arms up and a mysterious force field was coming from what seemed like her hands. The object about to hit him had bounced off and he was safe.

He squint his exhausted eyes, "Libby?"

The force field disappeared and the girl turned around, she was in red as far as he could tell and had long black hair, "No I'm not Libby – we need to get you into a safe place, come on," she pulled him to his feet.

He shook his head, "What about the robot?"

"My brother and I will take care of it," she pushed him hesitantly towards a building.

Jimmy shook his head, "This isn't something only two people can handle!"

"Not if they're a super," she responded, pushing him behind a building.

There Cindy sat, leaning against the building. A blonde boy in the same outfit as the girl but appeared to be closer to his and Cindy's age rather than the girl who seemed older. He was kneeling next to her, and seemed to be comforting her.

"Gee – that was really sweet of you to save me like that," Cindy's face turned a bit red, and the boy turned red in response, practically matching his outfit.

"It's – no big deal, really," he touched her shoulder, "Anything for a gorgeous girl, like you."

Jimmy sort of narrowed his eyes at their flirting behavior, "Where's Sheen?"

The boy looked up – he recognized that name, "Sheen?"

"Didn't he save Cindy?" Jimmy pointed to his female companion.

The boy looked at Cindy, "That's your name? It's pretty," he shyly said, some how not sounding as hyper as he usually did.

"Thanks," she clasped her hands together and smiled sweetly.

Jimmy irritatingly put his fingers through his green hair, "What in the name of –," a crash in the distance was heard again, "gas planet! That robot needs to be stopped!"

"Hey, we've dealt with that thing before, and we can deal with again. You two just better sit here and gather your strength," the girl suggested.

"Where have you dealt with this before?" Cindy asked, looking at the girl now.

"I don't think it's the same one sis," the boy pointed out, "It has more legs – and seems a little smarter this time, even stronger too. You saw how it crushed that Hummer!"

She nodded, "I know, but all we have to do is have it penetrate itself again – it can't be too hard."

"Penetrate it?" Jimmy looked around the corner to see it crushing more pavements, "Why can't we just aim something at it instead? That sounds easier."

"It isn't," she sighed, standing next to him, "It learns as it goes along."

"So I was right earlier – defiantly Artificial Intelligence."

"Right," she scratched her head, "But Syndrome is dead – he can't be controlling it, let alone building an upgrade."

"Yo! What's up my homies?" A voice appeared from nowhere, and they turned around to see Sheen in costume.

"Sheen! There you are," Jimmy sighed with relief.

"Here I am," he nodded, "I'm sorry it took so long – Carl was trying to put his costume on," Sheen sighed and rolled his eyes, "he got stuck – bad zipper incident. Got the fire department to show up too."

"Why wouldn't the fire department show up here?" Cindy questioned reasonably.

Sheen shrugged, "Libby called first I guess – she's staying with him – so she sent me!" He zipped in a few circles quickly.

"Whoa – you – you can run fast, like me," the boy stood up from where he was next to Cindy.

"Wait a second," the girl came between them, "You guys – are supers too?"

"Duh – you saw me flying, didn't you?" Cindy crossed her arms.

She nodded, "Well yeah – I assumed you had, I don't know – a jetpack. I'm not used to meeting many supers," she sighed, "Most of them are dead now."

Before any further explanation the claw crashed into the pavement nearest them, causing them all to scream in shock. From the top of the robot appeared a cloaked figure – all they could see was the figure's eyes beneath the cloak which glowed silvery.

"Hello my dears," the robot's claw arose to the top and turned into a platform – the figure seemingly floating onto it with ease, "My name is Phantasm."

Jimmy and the super-girl exchanged confused glances.

"Not one of my enemies," he whispered.

"Same here," she gulped.

"Who are you?" The boy walked next to his sister and stared as the platform neared them. It was obvious from the curvy outline of the person that it was a girl. She put her hands on what they assumed to be her hips.

"Did you not hear me? I'm Phantasm," she grinned (or so it seemed) and then put her hands behind her back and continued.

She stated this so plainly and yet sweetly it was rather chilling, "At just the slightest snap of my fingers – I can become your _worst_ nightmare."

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	4. CH 04: Introductions

**With Great Power**

**By Jessie G. / Dory**

Author Note: Although I love the fact you guys really do like my chapters – I DO NOT appreciate the fact many of you are demanding me to update quickly. The past couple of weeks I was trying hard to study intensely on my finals and it would have been foolish of me to update under the circumstances. I hated that I felt pressured to finish this chapter while trying to get good grades and I really did not need that extra load. I hope you guys like this chapter anyways, and I will try to update more, but I'm making it a priority to do better this semester so don't expect updates too frequently. Though I promise I will try – I really do love writing this story. And sorry the chapter is short, it may be longer next time.

* * *

**Chapter 04: Introductions**

"What makes you so certain you're our, 'worst nightmare'?" Cindy responded mockingly. Perhaps a bit too much mocking for her own eleven-year-old good. She placed her hands on her hips in a cocky manner as she gave Phantasm an intimidating stare.

Through the shadow cast over Phantasm's fast, you could see her silver eyes glare in response; she snapped her fingers and one of the claws came out of seemingly nowhere. It snatched Cindy at the waist and it lifted her from the ground, high up to Phantasm's level.

"Need any more examples," she touched Cindy's chin lightly with her black glove covered finger tips, "Pinky?"

Cindy squirmed in her uncomfortable position, "No thank you," she muttered defeated, not being able to wiggle her way out or strong enough to push it open. She felt slightly weaker, and silently prayed that she could keep her super-strength up enough to defeat this lady. She wormed a bit more"And the name isn't Pinky, lady"

"CINDY!" Both Jimmy and the boy in red cried out at once, there was a brief pause as Jimmy and the boy exchanged slightly annoyed looks.

"I think I prefer Pinky, it matched your snobby little know-it-all face" Phantasm patted Cindy's cheek bitter-sweetly.

"I'll get her," the boy was the first to respond and dashed towards the robot, Jimmy's fist curled furiously. The girl in red smacked her own forehead in frustration. Her brother was brave, for certain, but foolish was a stronger word for description.

"DASH! What are you doing?" She screamed after him, furious at his blunt decision.

"I know what I'm doing Violet," Dash yelled back, hi blonde hair streaking against his pale face and black mask in a rather dashing and somewhat handsome way.

Faster than the others could really see, Dash headed for the robot, but the robot was faster and snatched him up with a separate arm out of nowhere. Its claw grabbed him by the waist, capturing both arms as well. The sudden jolted stop caused Dash to crash his head against the side of the claw, Cindy and Violet instantly shrieked at his untimely collision.

"L-l-lets doo dat a-gain" Sputtered out of Dash's slightly bruised mouth. A fearful expression came over Cindy's face as Dash tiredly looked back at her briefly. With exhausted eyes, he collapsed into unconsciousness in the grasp of the claw.

"Let my brother go!" Violet screamed weakly, she had no idea what to do – she felt disappointed in herself, like a failure of a sister. She couldn't let Dash get hurt, but she knew better than to try to attack the robot like her brother foolishly did. If anything she knew that instantly by Phantasm's orders – Dash could be killed off in a second with Violet in no more power than - well, a normal person.

Phantasm put her finger to her chin mockingly, "Well now, I really think that'd be silly of me to follow my enemy's orders, don't you think?" She crossed her arms in front of her, "After all I am the bad girl, and I don't think it's in the job description to listen to the good-girl-in-spandex."

A confused expression fell over Violet's face, "I've never even seen you before – how on earth are we enemies?"

"And why do you have to capture Cindy?" Jimmy pointed out, trying to look some what heroic.

Cindy would have nodded her head in agreement, but at the moment she felt it would have been better off if she said as little as possible. Let alone make any more cocky or foolish comments and facial expressions.

Phantasm narrowed her eyes, "Oh trust me, you indirectly know me ," she began.

"Well if she indirectly knows you, then you really shouldn't have anything against any of us," Sheen offered helpfully, Jimmy put his hand over Sheen's mouth to attempt to keep him from saying anything to anger this villainous woman. Sheen and Jimmy shared quick glances, but Sheen gave an expression making certain that he had no idea what was wrong with his statement. Jimmy simply briefly scowled in response, keeping his hand securely over Sheen's mouth.

She put her hands on her hips, "Point well made," Jimmy removed his hand, slightly defeated, and Sheen stuck his tongue out victoriously, "but indirectly is good enough right now. You foiled my love's plans and now I'm out for revenge."

Violet made a disgusted face, "You were in love with Syndrome?"

Phantasm crossed her arms and sort of snarled, "It's a long story that I don't feel like telling to a pre-teen and some big headed children."

"Hey! Jimmy's the only one with a big head – I'm just hyperactive and have no eyebrows!" Sheen crossed his arms, as Jimmy snarled at him from the corner of his mouth. Sheen was not making him a happy boy today, and he wasn't giving Ms. Phantasm any sort of intimidation what-so-ever.

She smirked, "You all really are incompetent heroes."

"Im-competent? Is that a school word?" Sheen scratched his head, "Because if it is," he shifted his eyes, "I forgot to study - actually, I think I failed that spelling quiz," he put his hand on his chin and thought deeply for a second, trying to remember

"That's _in_competent, you idiot!" Cindy screamed from her position in mid-air. She too had gotten sick of Sheen over the past few minutes.

"Look it up in the thesaurus, genius," Phantasm muttered, bored at this point, "I'm going to go and let you children figure this out for yourselves."

"NO!" Jimmy barked, his fists clenched at his sides and his face turning a deep red.

Unfortunately, within a flash of a moment the machine, Phantasm, Cindy and Dash vanished without a trace. Leaving Jimmy, Sheen, and Violet standing their in the middle of the deserted street. Jimmy and Violet's faces turned pale almost instantly, and Sheen's jaw dropped.

Jimmy turned to Violet, slightly shaken, he asked, "Does – does that always happen? With that machine you've seen before, I mean."

Violet simply stared at the place in the air where her brother had been limp and unconscious just a moment ago, "N-no," she paused"At least - not as far as I've seen. She - or whoever - must have updated it - it's more powerful than I've ever seen it before.

"Bummer." Sheen responded dully, scratching the back of his ear carelessly.

**To Be Continued ..**


	5. CH 05: Two Concealed Identities

**With Great Power**

**By Jessie G. AKA Dory**

Author Note: Let me just say thank you for those who understood and apologized. I indeed did very well on my finals - and I should have posted that chapter sooner, but I hadn't gotten around to it (in fact it turned out better this way as I added more detail to it before I sent it in). I'd like to personally respond to a few of you.

halfdemon-gurl15 - I understand where you're coming from - but I do not appreciate you telling me to 'chill out' just because it wasn't as simple as me being irritated by any sort of over-analyzing my reviews. Look at those reviews (since I don't think you did ..) - twice by one reviewer I was pretty much run over with the word "UPDATE". If it was simply a case of people nicely wanting me to update - which for the most case it has been - then I don't think I would have been as irritated. It'd be nice to get more of a comment than "that was great - update now" once in a while though - you know what I mean? So nothing against your comment - I don't think you looked at all the reviews, is all - as you are right, most of them were very nice and I know people just want me to update, which I am.

AvrilsLittleSis - I forgive you ) I actually am rather honored that people want me to update so badly - but it is a tad of an annoyance when it's sorta thrown on me like that. Thank you for the reviews though - either way.

The CheezHead - Thank you so much! I live for these reviews, lol - if you really like the plot-development so far (which I personally thought I could do better in) - than you'll be excited to see all the foreshadowing and irony I've got planned for upcoming chapters! ;)

tigereye99 - Actually, no - not from the DC comic world - I've never actually heard of her, but that was a great guess even so! She actually is just a fan character of mine - but as a hint, you've really gotta take her advice from the last chapter to figure out who she really is. That should be answered in this or upcoming chapters. )

pokey - That's good to hear! I was hoping it would stay mysterious, and I'm glad it has. More mystery coming up!

Phew - that was long. I believe that's about everything I wanted to say. Much thanks to all of you who reviewed - I always appreciate that stuff - even if sometimes it annoys me, lol. Anyways, I started this chapter tonight and finished it after I think about 2 and a half hours (really should had gone to sleep after half an hour), but I simply couldn't stop writing. I hope you all enjoy, I enjoyed writing it, though I'm sure in the morning (or later today at the moment) I won't be too happy about it.

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**Chapter 5: Two Concealed Identities **

Slowly forcing her eyes open, all she could see was a bright darkness surrounding her. A quick intake of breath zipped into her mouth as she sat up to look around at her surroundings - or more correctly, lack of. Where was she? She touched her face with her icy cold hands and realized her mask was still on. Why was she in her costume?

In a flash of an instant it all came back to her, "Phantasm," she held her neck and made a painful face as her throat ached deeply. One of those pains one might get that came when surrounded by too much dust while sleeping. Then everything sort of seeped into your lungs, and caused your throat to feel sour and scratch when you awoke.

She looked around, attempting to adjust her eyes to the harsh darkness around her and could make out a figure right next to her. She slowly crawled over to him, feeling a sudden weakness of sorts in her body.

Cocking her head sideways, she touched the limp figure on what she supposed was his or her arm - an icy and slightly slimy feeling resulted in the simple touch and Cindy shuddered in an instant.

"Jimmy?" She whispered, trying to keep from hurting her voice any further. The body stirred slightly and she edged a little closer, realizing the figure was certainly a boy, but his head wasn't as oddly shaped as Jimmy's.

Squinting her eyes, she peered at the boy, touching him cautiously again and turning his unconscious body over so she could see him more clearly. She gasped and put her hand to her mouth - it all came back to her.

"You're the boy who ," she touched Dash's pale and cold cheek"Saved ... me."

She ran through her thoughts - did she remember his name? It started with.. some.. letter. That's all she clearly remembered. It came back to her that Jimmy had foolishly said her name, and this boy had thought her name was pretty. She smiled at that thought and touched the edge of his mask.

For a moment she sat back and thought about that black mask - not really the best thing for concealing someone's identity - but it was generally good enough. It did seem weird though - she recalled his sister, her long black and slightly violet/blue hair - she was almost certain that if she saw the back of that girl's head in a large crowd, she would know who it was. Come on - really, what did the mask really hide? Any idiot could find you unless you really looked - well, just like everyone else. But this boy's mask was even still rather small. If she were to remove it - would he be mad at her? Probably. Then he wouldn't trust her. She would have to wait for him to reveal his identity on his own. Technically, it wouldn't be fair for her to just find out on her own. It was sort of confusing - thinking about it, it was only a mask that covered a limited bit of his face.

'It's not like he's Spider-man - where I would be pulling off a full head mask,' she thought to herself as an argument, 'Then again - your identity is an important thing, right? I would be stealing that from him. And who ever had us captured would find out who he is, and that would just make things even worse.'

She sighed and slumped back a little, she had just mentally argued with herself, and technically - she lost. However that worked out was beyond her rather extensive knowledge.

His face winced in pain briefly, as if he were having a nightmare. Her lips scrunched to the side of her face indecisively as she extended her hand to touch his hair. At her finger tips it was fairly soft, slightly gelled, but it didn't feel sticky. She casually ran her fingers through it as if to comfort him a bit. Though she doubted it would help - he seemed more experienced than her in the whole super hero thing - he was probably used to being captured.

She thought about that for a second, perhaps he was fairly new at this - he was rather foolish in his attempts to rescue her. Very sweet intention, but never-the-less even Jimmy knew better. Then again Jimmy only knew better because his powers happened to be very limited - where as the boy seemed to be capable of vast speed - the ability to .. well, Dash.

"Oh" she whispered and smiled, looking at his face, "That's it," she said to no one in particular "Your name is Dash - I remember now," she sort of giggled, "Your name fits perfectly."

Taking her fingers out of his hair, she clasped her own together and put them in her lap. Looking down at her hands she sighed and wondered where they were. The floor felt cold, and slimy, so she assumed they were stuck in some sort of cage.

"Yeah - that's what my parents say all the time," a weak but smiling voice replied to her last comment.

Her eyes went wide and her body spun around to look at Dash, still on the ground, but his arms crossed and a little grin on his face. Her own face lit up instantly and she embraced him with a hug.

"Oh thank goodness!" She shrieked, "Man - you were out like a light," she pulled back from a slightly red Dash who had been shocked by the hug, "That was REALLY stupid of you, yanno. I mean Neutron on his own has done a lot of stupid things" she thought about that for a second off to the side and nodded in confirmation, "But that was really stupid, Dash."

He pushed himself up with his arms, a slight narrow in his eyes, "Would you prefer to be sitting in here alone?"

Cindy opened her mouth as if to respond, but she closed her mouth and looked off to the ground, wrapping her arms around her nervously. She didn't even really have to respond at all.

"I rest my case," He nodded, closing his eyes and making as if he knew best. We already have confirmed that he doesn't.

She rubbed the back of her neck uncertainly, "Where do you suppose we are?" She turned a little cocky and crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "Or do you already know the answer to that too, Sherlock?"

He nervously gave a, "Heh - well," and gulped, looking at their surroundings.

"I rest my case," She replied, mockingly.

He ignored her for a moment and looked carefully around, "I see bars over there - and some blue rays - guessing that they'll electrocute or shock us if we try to escape," he turned back to Cindy, "So I guess we're in a cage."

"Obviously," she muttered sadly, she looked up, "I'm sorry - I didn't intend that to be, well, ok it did come off as sarcastic," she laughed at his slight scowl, "But I didn't really mean it - I guess it's just pretty obvious that we're trapped."

He nodded and sighed, "Do you remember anything after I passed out?"

Putting a finger to her chin she thought briefly, "Eh - Phantasm was arguing back and forth with Jimmy, Sheen, and your sister - and then there was this sort of rippling effect like the whole world was ," she stopped with a blank stare.

"Was? " Dash stared back at her, waving a hand in front of her face. She caught his hand without as much as a flinch, "What?" He turned around and gave a horrified gasp to see a recognizable figure in the distance on the opposite side of the bars and rays.

"Boo." the figure responded with a smug smile on her barely visible face.

"Hey guys!" An out of breath Libby yelled, followed shortly behind her was Carl, who looked rather pained and even more exhausted, "What did we miss?" She put her hands on her knees as she stopped next to Sheen who had just finished giving the stupid comment of 'bummer' and had received serious glares from both Jimmy and Violet.

Sheen shrugged, "Not much really - when I came in there was this big butted roll-y machine," extending his arms out as if it really were that size, "it had more legs than the Spider-Monster in that Ultra Lord episode 'Attack of the 8 Foot 8 Legged Freakazoids', and it captured Cindy. Then this blonde dude ran up to save her - which was reallly stupid of him, I mean he has my exact powers, but even I wouldn't have been as foolish as that," Violet, who was now next to Jimmy scowled once again with her arms crossed as Sheen continued, "We had some exchange in conversation with this Phantasm chick in all black, she suggested I look in the thesaurus, I guess that's like a dinosaur or something, then she pulled a Houdini," he wiggled his fingers magically in the air as if he were to cast a spell, "In other words - now Cindy and - what's his name? Rash?"

"DASH!" Violet hissed, nearly in tears since the disappearance of her brother.

Sheen nodded carelessly "Yeah - Dash, whatever. Point is - Phantasm lady and the many-legged machine kidnapped them, and then disappeared," he shrugged and then looked excited as Carl sat on the ground," SO - on more exciting news, what happened with the zipper and the fire department and Sam's cat? That must have been 11 minute cartoon worthy!"

"Not in my opinion," Carl replied weakly with a finger in the air as he sighed deeply.

Libby nodded in agreement, "Ok - so what's the plan Jimmy?"

He looked down at his twiddling fingers "I'm really not too sure - I mean, she just vanished without any truly logical way of it occurring. It was kind of like a mirage or something, I don't know - that technically is the definition of 'phantasm' after all."

Violet's face lit up, "Say - would any of you happen to have a thesaurus? I think I would like to take up that lady's advice," she put her hand to her chin and thought for a moment.

Jimmy shrugged, "I carry one in my backpack, but it isn't with me."

Everyone stared at him for a moment, wordless.

"**WHAT?** I'm a genius - isn't that what you'd expect from me?" He raised his hands up in the air like it was a big deal.

"_Really?_" Violet asked with severe interest.

Jimmy shyly put his hands behind him, "Well it's nothing to be embarrassed of - I mean, I'm sure a lot of people have dictionaries in their backpack as well - actually, I do have one too, " but Violet cut him off.

"No, no - I mean - are you really a genius?" She waved her arms briefly and then looked at him expectantly.

"Welll - I don't like to brag, " Jimmy sort of blushed at this.

"_Psh,_" Sheen responded.

Carl snorted as well, "Are you kiddin' Jim? You _LOVE_ to brag - especially to Cindy," he paused, "I guess you're right Libby - that whole Love/Hate thing does sorta make sense. He _LOVES_ to brag - he **_LOVES_** to brag to CINDY -."

"ENOUGH!" Jimmy shouted back sourly, turning to Violet with a smile, "Yeah, in pretty much most countries I'm pretty much officially a genius," he thought briefly, "Though some of the Eastern countries aren't really willing to care about making it official - but I guess that doesn't matter too much."

"Hmm - fascinating," Violet pondered for a moment, "Ok - well back on topic, do you have a thesaurus? Or anyone - yanno - near you."

Libby suddenly perked up, "We could check one online or something, right? That should work."

"TO THE INTERNET!" Sheen screamed victoriously, there was absolute silence.

"Yeah - I guess for the first time I'll agree with you eyebrow-less wonder," Violet smiled.

Jimmy smiled, "Fortunately - with a quick call from Goddard, we can have a wireless internet with us in an instant."

Violet raised an eyebrow, "Isn't Goddard - I don't really recall exactly, but some sort of scientist?"

"Nah," Sheen replied, as they all came closer together, "Goddard's a dog! Where the heck did you get the idea that he was a scientist?" He stared at her as if she were lower than his own IQ.

While Jimmy click on his watch and waited from a response from his dog, he looked up at Sheen, "Actually, Sheen - I named Goddard after the famous scientist who," two barks interrupted his response on his watch, he looked at the video down on his watch and smiled, "Hey boy! Could you lock my coordinates and fly over here quickly? We're in need of your internet services."

"Bark, bark!" The mechanical pooch replied happily and the screen went black as Jimmy smiled, satisfied completely.

Within a few moments, Goddard appeared in the distance, his ears acting like a helicopter.

"Amazing!" Violet gasped, "Syndrome would have envied you," she thought briefly, "Probably would have tried to kill you for that dog, for that matter."

"Who is this Syndrome any," Jimmy was about to ask as Goddard landed, Jimmy smiled and pat his loyal mutt on the head, "Good boy - ok, buddy - go onto the internet thesaurus, please."

A screen popped open on Goddard's stomach and a loading sign appeared, Violet gasped, completely impressed. The website came up and a keyboard came out right below the screen.

Jimmy was about to type but Sheen popped up in front of him and typed 'incompetent' on the keyboard.

"Sheen!" Jimmy whined, but Sheen ignored his annoyance.

"What? Phantasm TOLD me to look it up - I'm just doing what she said," He looked at the screen and nodded "amateur, amateurish, awkward, bungling, bush ... bush? As in ?" but he was cut off by Libby.

"Please, Sheen! No political jokes right now," Libby sighed, putting a hand to her forehead.

Sheen shrugged, "But it says that! Honest! It can't be talking about, you know - a regular old green bush, right?"

Jimmy pushed Sheen out of the way and held his arm out so that Violet could type. She quickly typed in 'phantasm' and scanned the results.

"There's quite a number of results her," she mumbled, "But it's got to be here - AHA" She shrieked, scaring most of them to fall a little backwards from her burst of out-of-character shriek. She pointed to the second entry.

Sheen squinted, "apparition, blunder, casuistry, chicanery, daydream, deception, deception, deceptiveness, dream, eidolon, error, fallacy, false impression, fancy, fantasy, figment, fool's paradise, ghost, hallucination, head trip, ignis fatuus, illusion, lapse, mirage, misapprehension, misbelief, mistake, oversight, phantasm, phantom, pipe dream, self-deception, shade, speciousness, spuriousness, trickery, trip, vision - so what?"

She pointed to a specific word, "You guys wouldn't understand - but I do," her finger lay just under the word 'mirage', "She was hinting to us before - saying to look in the thesaurus - she meant truly under her own name. Mirage - that's our friend, she at first was working for Syndrome. She tricked my dad, but ended up becoming our friend. Perhaps - could it be ..?" Violet scratched her head.

"What does that all mean?" Jimmy asked, slightly confused.

"It means," Violet turned to the rest of them"Two things - Phantasm is either actually Mirage, or someone related to Mirage."

**To Be Continued ..**


	6. CH 06: Power Outage

**With Great Power**

**By Jessie/Dory**

Author Note: I'm so sorry guys – totally my fault this time, none of yours. I have emailed one person – but the not updating thing was just my fault. Keeps slipping my mind, unfortunately – but for that matter I was just not getting any ideas until now. I got The Incredibles DVD back on Tuesday and have been spending a lot of my time with it, lol.

In a random, yet related quick story – we've been reading Julius Caesar in my English class and there's one part where a character says something about a dream being 'a phantasm' and calling it an illusion or bad nightmare. Something to that effect – and of course I was psyched about that and immediately shared it with one of my friends (who happens to often review this story). Funny coincidence, huh? ) Oh – and to those who asked if this would end up being a J/C or a D/C – well, you'll have to wait till the end to find out, now won't you? For now though – since Dash and Cindy have to be together, moreof the romance will be with them since Jimmy isn't there. As for Jimmy and Violet- of course Jimmy may end up crushing on her, but do remember that Violet has a boyfriend.

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**Chapter 6: Power Outage**

Dash narrowed his eyes at Phantasm – if anyone hadn't suspected her coming along, well, that'd be rather sad. Either way she stood in the darkness, still hooded with her hands behind her back and her silver eyes glowing dangerously. Although the two couldn't see it she was putting on a particularly evil smile as she stepped closer to the bars of the cage.

In a purposely cocky manner, Dash crossed his arms in response to Phantasm's previous 'boo' and replied, "Boo who?"

Cindy's eyes widened and she snapped her head towards him, "Ex-nay on the mock-ay," she whispered through tightly clenched teeth, whacking him in the arm slightly.

"Boohoo to you little super boy," she clapped her hands and the electric rays disappeared and a secret door into the cage opened up, closing behind her, she floated closer to Dash and Cindy, "For if you continue with this behavior, you'll be," she swooped down and picked Dash up by the neck, "well – about as dead as Syndrome."

Dash gasped from his suspension in midair, clenching her hand that held him and kicked his legs around to get free. He could scarcely breathe and felt weaker by the moment.

"LET HIM GO!" Cindy gave out a shaky scream, tears leaking from her eyes.

"As you wish, Pinky," Phantasm replied dreadfully slowly, and she simply let go of Dash from where she held him. He gave a yelp from shock at his sudden ability to breath. With barely a second to think, Cindy dove in front of Phantasm and caught Dash in her arms. Her arms and body crashed and skidded slightly on the ground; she exhaled her breath and rested her face on his stomach as she could barely move.

Phantasm gave an annoyed sigh, "Oh ruin all the fun, why don't you? I'll leave you two love-birds here for now and I'll be back later," she walked towards the secret door as Dash lifted his head up to watch her leave, "And if you need any assistance whatsoever -," the door snapped shut and the electric rays appeared once more, "Just – scream."

With that she disappeared and was gone once again.

Without a second of thought, Dash instantly sat up, adjusting his sitting position so he was no longer putting weight on Cindy's arms. He lifted her head up to see her face, for a moment her eyes were closed and she opened them slowly. Dash picked her up slightly and turned her around so that she was now lying on her back. He wrapped his arms around her into a hug, "Thanks Cindy."

Cindy coughed harshly as he hugged her, "No problem Dash," she turned to him with concern, "Are you ok? She was practically choking you!"

"Erm – she _was_ choking me."

"Which makes my concern even more valid," Cindy confirmed, "It wasn't easy making a dive like that," she rubbed her bruised right arm cautiously.

Dash smiled, and then smoothed out his hair slightly, "Yeah well-p, you know I would have been fine all the same."

"Hey I didn't want Mr. Speedy getting his leg broken," she pointed out, stretching her sore body. She stretched her arms out a bit too much and sucked a large intake of air, suddenly clutching her stomach in pain.

His smile faded instantly, "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing!" She insisted instantly, then sucking in her breath through her teeth.

Dash helped her sit up slightly, "That nothing sounds like a lot of something."

She shook her head in disbelief and started mumbling to herself, "No – no I don't believe this is happening – not now -," she clutched her arms as if they were about to disappear.

"What- what's happening?" But Cindy didn't respond, her eyes clenched closed and her face scrunched together as tears slowly leaked from her eyes, "Cindy! Say something!" He grabbed her shoulders tightly, turned her to face him, and shook her slightly.

Suddenly Cindy started bawling like crazy, "I'm losing them – they're – gone – I – can – feel – it," she stated during sobs. Dash simply cocked his head in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"My -," she sobbed again, "Powers."

Dash's eyes turned a bit more serious, they squinted as if they were looking for a clearer answer that he could not see. But he simply could not understand her, "What about them?"

"I told you!" She put her hands over eyes and faced downward as she continued to cry. Dash grabbed her hands away from her wet face. She looked up at him, tears continuing to leak from her red eyes as she suffered from pain, her once pretty face was puffy and her cheeks were red.

He shook his head, "I don't understand you."

She took a deep breath, wincing from pain on the way, "Jimmy – said – we'd lose our powers in a few days. I – I must have over used them in some way – I don't know – but – they're starting to fade away. Always – always this has to happen at the stupidest of times," she yanked her right hand away from Dash's and pound it with anger into the ground. Surprisingly, it still left quite a dent.

"Now I understand even less," Dash responded quizzically as he stared at the indent, "You don't seem to have lost anything ..."

She shook her head, "Give it time – and look," she held up her muscle to him, "They're back to their normal and pathetic size. And give it a moment, I'm sure my flying ability will disappear momentarily too."

"How are you losing powers you were born with?" Dash was making no connection at all.

"BECAUSE I wasn't BORN with them!" Cindy screamed at him, not completely intentional, but at the moment her side lurched with a horrid thrust of pain and she couldn't say it in any softer tone.

Dash immediately let go of her hands, his eyes wide with shock, he slowly backed away, "You – you mean you – _aren't_ a super?"

She sniffed, using her arm to push her tears away, "A super?"

He nodded intently, "You weren't born with them ... that's how most supers have their powers," he paused and thought about it, "Well some of the fictional ones – spider man for example – bitten by a spider type of thing. I don't know – my parents always told me that the supers they knew were all born with powers," he narrowed his eyes, "Unless – you aren't working for anyone, are you?"

She shook her head, sniffling slight from a runny nose, "No – Jimmy was driving Carl, Sheen, Libby and I in space – long story short we ended up with superpower skills. Everyone ended up with these amazing gifts, except for Jimmy," she smiled briefly at the mention of his name, "who was just orange with green hair," Dash stared at her, listening closely, "But then we were really bad at being superheroes and didn't know how to control our powers. The government captured us and tried to lock us up. Except for Jimmy – they deemed him harmless. At some point he got really angry and turned into this like orange-Hulk character. We escaped when we found out he was attacking Retroville. We all tried to get him back to normal, but after everyone had fainted from over-using their powers, I was the only person left. I ended up saying nice things to Jimmy, and then I guess fainted – Jimmy at some point turned back to normal. He saved us all," she took a deep breath.

"I don't see how this affects anything now," Dash replied, mainly to himself.

"-And said something about that our powers were going to kill us – if we had kept using them."

Dash's eyes went wide, "But – but even knowing that, you still used them, didn't you?"

She hung her head down in shame, "I did. Jimmy said that our powers would fully wear off in a few days. I couldn't resist though," she looked up at Dash in the eyes, "Do you understand? It was like -," she searched for the words.

"An addiction," Dash offered, remembering the words his sister had said to him that night in the ally before their parents had caught them.

She nodded soundlessly, but then continued, "So I guess this is it. Unless you can do something," she sighed, "we're completely dun fore."

Dash stared at her thoughtfully for a moment as she continued to hang her head down with closed eyes, wincing every so often to some inner pain of hers. He looked down at his feet, messaging his left foot slightly as it felt like it had been sprained. His head went back to her level, and paused for a moment. His right hand touched her cheek, pushing it to his level and holding it up. Cindy opened her eyes and stared blankly, almost drained from everything.

"You know as well as I do that a person doesn't need powers to pull stuff off, right?" He kept his hand in place and she simply sniffled in response, "Well I know right now I can't pull this off – especially without you, Cindy. Powers or not I think you're a cool girl."

She smiled from the corner of her lips, then lifting her hand up to touch Dash's hand, "Thanks, Dash." She leaned closer and kissed him on the cheek, he instantly blushed furiously. She laughed slightly, "Man if Jimmy happened to be here, he would so be red with fury and jealousy at the moment."

* * *

Jimmy paced back and forth, "So what are we suppose to do?" He put his hand on his chin and Sheen sat on the ground – watching the genius walk back and forth.

Carl sat next to Sheen, and Libby leaned on Sheen's shoulder, they all seemed to be in thought, but not quite as deeply as Jimmy. Violet was leaning against the building, crossing her arms and looking down at her feet. For a moment she looked up at Jimmy who was pacing and her heart sort of sunk.

"I don't know – I suppose she may have taken them to Nomanisan Island," Violet mused out loud.

Jimmy stopped and looked up at Violet curiously, "Where's that? It sounds vaguely familiar."

Violet pushed herself off the wall and walked towards Jimmy, "It's in the Pacific Ocean – was Syndrome's island. I imagine Mirage would be the one to own it now," she shrugged, "I don't know, but I bet if this is related to her in anyway, that's where they are."

"Hmm," Jimmy continued to think, he walked up to Violet a bit closer, "Do you have any way of contacting your brother?"

She pushed her hair behind her hair, "Contact as in -," she placed her free hand on her hips and her eyes went wide suddenly, "as a matter of fact .."

The others slowly stood up to come closer to hear what was going on. Sheen offered, "Oooh – do you guys have one of those 'Escape to Witch Mountain' things where you can send messages to one another through thought?" Sheen grabbed Violet by the arm and jumped up and down ecstatically.

She stared at him for a moment and shook her head, "No – we're not twins OR witches. And I'm not thinking of any mental super powers either."

"Then what else is there?" Carl questioned.

"Cell phone? Walkie-talkie?" Libby suggested, "Text messaging?"

Violet smiled and out of habit of grabbing her brother's hair, she ran her fingers through Jimmy's green hair. Out of shock, Jimmy gave a bright red blush, but said nothing. Violet continued, not really noticing Jimmy's shock, "I have a way of getting his exact location – not necessarily contacting, but at least we'll know where he is."

Out of her pocket she pulled a small trading card sized screen, "This is a bit above the cell phone technology."

Jimmy snapped back to normal and took it from her and looked at it briefly, "Amazing, who designed this?"

Violet snapped it out of Jimmy's hands and turned it on, "Edna Mode."

"Hey can I press the button?" Carl squealed, diving for the locator, unfortunately missing all together and winding up on the ground, groaning with pain.

Libby shook her head, "Be careful Carl, I can only give someone the heimlich once a day, ok?"

"HEY! Swallowing Sam's cat was just an accident!"

"Your friends are really weird," Violet arched an eyebrow to Jimmy, though it was hard to tell due to her mask, "But I think I like you guys," and she smiled, and then pressed the button to activate the locator.

She casually looked at the small screen where the location would be shown, her eyes went wide in terror.

"What-what's wrong?" Jimmy hesitated at her sudden shock, and watched the located slip from her fingers onto the ground.

Violet put her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, "This makes no sense."

Jimmy picked up the located at his feet and looked at it cautiously. His eyes went wide as well, "No -," he breathed. Violet collapsed slightly, wrapping her arms around Jimmy, Jimmy heaved slightly at her weight, but was able to hold her up, and he hugged her tightly for comfort.

Libby took it from Jimmy's hand and looked at it, "I don't understand – it's just highlighting a blue location – what does that mean?"

Violet lifted her head, "They're – or at least Dash is," she burst into sobs, "in the ocean!"

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	7. CH 07: Blinking Light of Hope

**With Great Power**

**By Jessie/Dory

* * *

**

**Author Note:** Gasp! Fast update, wasn't it? Don't suspect one too soon – this chapter would have been longer, but I don't think it needed to be anyways. For those of you who are confused as to why the big deal to Violet and Jimmy that it shows Dash being in the ocean versus being on the Island – I inserted later in the chapter a part where Sheen asks about this. I'll give you a hint – being in the ocean could imply that she has drowned Dash. We of course know that this hasn't happened.

And for the Jimmy/Violet fans – when I think about it, we never really know what happened with Violet and Tony, and I don't recall mentioning him yet, so who knows as of now as to whether that would stop any potential romance. Hey – what happens shall happen. ;) Anyways – thanks guys for the suggestions of help – at the moment I'm fine and know where a lot is going (if you re-read some chapters there's quite a bit of foreshadowing). If I need help – you know I'll ask. ;)

* * *

**Chapter 7: Blinking Light of Hope**

"What's that?" Cindy mused out loud as she leaned against Dash whom was sitting up. She sleepily looked at the 'I' logo on his chest, but knew for certain it was blinking and not her mind playing tricks on her.

Dash had his arm wrapped around her and was drifting off into thought at the time, looked at her with confusion, "You mean my I? It's for Incredibles. Cause, yanno – my dad is Mr. Incredible."

She shook her head, still not quite awake, "No – I know what it is – but why is it blinking like an annoying little kids meal toy?"

For a moment the sleepy Dash processed what she was saying, and thus looked down at his suit to see the dot of the eye was blinking. He gasped and leaped to his feet, touching the 'I' repetitively as if it were something he had never seen before. A great smile appeared on his lips suddenly as he looked down at a ticked off Cindy. In the process of jumping up, he had caused her to fall onto the ground.

He laughed nervously, "Sorry, Cindy."

She shook it off, though still weak from her panic involving her loss of power in which was getting worse by the moment. She still managed to stand up and cross her arms, "well then, you want to share with me what is so great about having a nightlight on your suit?"

Simply grinning, he pointed to the blinking light, "it means that Jimmy, Violet and the others must be looking for us! Violet must have pressed the locator – that means they know where we are!"

For the first time in quite a while, a huge smile formed on Cindy's face and she leaped at Dash, hugging his neck. He spun her around and then put her on her feel, she sighed, "We have a chance to get out of here!"

* * *

Violet sat down on the ground, her face buried in her hands, and the locator that pointed to Dash being somewhere in the middle of the ocean, sat beside her on the ground. Jimmy sat next to her, feeling lost and rather dumbfounded for once in his life. If there was the possibility that Dash had been killed – then what had happened to Cindy? Surely something equally as horrific, but he couldn't imagine what could be worse.

Out of her fingers, Violet sobbed, "There's no chance at all – oh, I'm a horrible sister!"

Hearing her say this tugged at Jimmy's heartstrings – slowly, he reached out and touched her shoulder, but she gave no acknowledging response to him. She simply buried her head in her arms, but not once did she out right cry. A sniffle was heard from beneath her arms, and that was all.

"I don't get it," Sheen suddenly commented, dumbfounded as usual, "What's the difference?"

Violet looked up, as did Jimmy, you couldn't tell she had been crying due to the mask, but her eyes were slightly red and she still wore a frown, "The difference of what?"

"Exactly," Sheen replied, Libby and Carl looked up at him as they sat down as well, "I mean that Nomanishkan-blah-blah Island sounds pretty bad, but how is it any different from just the ocean?"

Carl shuddered, "Remember when we were all stuck on Jimmy's hover car near the equator that one time? That was awful," he thought back to that moment, "We probably would have eaten each other after a while."

"It's not just that," Jimmy pointed out, "Him showing up in the water has endless possibilities. Maybe Phantasm drowned them in the ocean, or tossed them out there or something," he sniffed slightly, "Or maybe it's all a trick – maybe she knew about the locator and tossed his suit into the ocean so that we would be sent the wrong direction. We don't know anything."

"That's what's so scary," Violet sighed in a barely audible voice as a small tear freed itself from the edge of her mask. Jimmy noticed it and pushed it away for her; she nodded and replied softly, "Thanks."

"Oh," Sheen stated simply, his head lowering down at this sudden realization. It dawned to him as to how tragic this could be, despite Cindy's constant annoyance to him, they were always sort of friends on the inside, even if it was rarely stated. He then say down in between the puzzled Carl and the stunned Libby.

Libby suddenly burst into tears, putting her face into her hands as Violet had done before, letting then soak her fingers, "I – want – my – best – friend!" She cried in between breathes. She then leaned against Sheen's shoulders and continued. Sheen simply sighed, and put an arm around her shoulders, hoping it was some sort of comfort.

Carl frowned and picked up the abandoned locator, observing it for a moment, "Hey – Violet?" He looked up at her as she held her head up to see him, "What's this green thing, right there -?"

"What green thing?" Violet asked, and then Carl handed it to her, pointing to a little corner of the screen. Puzzled – Violet moved the images on the screen a little in order see more clearly what it was. She cocked her head to the side, "That's –," she paused, as if perplexed and quite in thought.

Jimmy, now clearly interested, looked over her shoulder to see what they were talking about, "It looks like an island," he muttered as he observed the picture.

Libby looked up from Sheen's shoulder and pushed the spare tears off her face. She and Sheen then crawled over and peeked over their shoulders to see what they were looking at.

"I – I think that is an island," Libby nodded as she spoke, "Is there anyway you can highlight that?"

Violet shrugged, "I don't know everything about this thing yet – mainly my parents use it. They always packed one in each of our suits just in case we ever lost one another," for a moment she adjusted it and pressed a few buttons. Quickly she was able to select the land mass and a little info box popped up.

Violet began to read it out loud, "Island of Nomanisan – privately owned. Does not appear on most radar," she nodded, "It IS Nomanisan, what does this mean?" She looked over at Jimmy who was contemplating at the moment.

"Maybe -," a slow smile crept up on Jimmy's face, "It has to be! It's all a trick – a hallucination!"

"You mean it has to do with bad breath?" Sheen piped in.

"Aw man – I wanted to make the joke," Carl pouted as Sheen stuck out his tongue to the defeated and pouting boy.

"Not halitosis, Sheen," Libby scowled, "Go on, Jimmy."

Ignoring Sheen's previous comment, Jimmy continued, "Well basically – they really are in the ocean, but not necessarily in the water."

The others just blinked in response, Sheen scratched his head as Carl cocked his own. Jimmy sensed this made no sense, which he should have realized in the first place, and he continued, "What I mean is, they must be in some sort of underground chamber that is connected to the island. They aren't actually in the water!"

The others smiled at one another, perhaps this was all true – but Violet, though hopeful, seemed unconvinced. She pointed out, "How do we know this isn't all a joke Phantasm is setting us up for?"

* * *

"This must be some horrible joke," Dash growled as the light on his 'I' continued to be lit, but not blinking as it had before. Cindy was rather relieved by this, as most of this time they had been surrounded by darkness other than the glowing blue electric rays. Suddenly seeing light was one thing, as it could have been gotten used to, but having it blink on and off endlessly was completely annoying. At least with the light just staying on this time, they could now see each other just a little better.

Cindy shrugged to Dash's comment, as they once again were sitting on the floor, "At least we know Violet has found us – well, you."

Dash gave a grunt of a sigh, "Yeah," his shoulders sagged down, "But I wish I could contact her back. These things should come equipped with ways of sending messages to everyone else. I mean a phone, or a signaler, or at least some text messaging would work!"

For a moment Cindy considered this, "True – it would be helpful if we could send them a message some how. That way they would know we're ok, and that we saw the message. Cause just think about it – it's just attached to your suit right? You could be washing it and someone could locate you and think you're stuck in the washer."

He nodded in agreement, though now his elbow was on his knee and it held up his head with his hand as he listened to her, "I guess."

"It would just make more sense then," Cindy rounded up, "If we contacted her – letting her know 'hey guess what, we're alive and we know you're coming – bring some burgers, we're starved' – you know what I mean."

Dash sat up a little more, "Yeah I know what you mean – but what are we going to do? I can't think of anything."

For a moment, Cindy considered it, and then it all summed up, and she smacked her own head, "Have you been thinking _at all_?" She looked at him with a 'oh my gosh I just had this huge realization, and you're going to feel like an idiot if I'm correct about it' facial expression.

"Huh?" Dash clearly didn't get it at all.

"Hello!" Cindy raised up her hands, "If Violet has a locator – wouldn't you have one also?"

Although his mask still covered his face, she could see Dash's eyes go wide as he connected the dots of his mind. Instantly he reached into the secret pocket of his suit and pulled out a locator that would track down Violet. He looked at Cindy with a smile, and she gave him a know-it-all smile back.

"I have no idea why everyone calls Jimmy the genius – I mean, I obviously am equally as genius-like," she smirked and then held out her hand as if to say 'get on with it already'.

* * *

Jimmy frowned at Violet's disbelief, "Well I don't see how I can give you any proof. I mean it's not like we have some sort of holographic image from a robot saying 'Obi-wan, we need your help!'."

Carl nodded in agreement, "Especially since none of us go by Obi-wan ," he paused, "At least – in public," his face turned slightly pink.

"Though I'm sure Jimmy wouldn't mind seeing Cindy dressed as Princess Leia from the final movie," Libby teased, as Jimmy turned a slight shade of pink as well, averting his eyes from Violet.

"I have NO idea what you're talking about," he quickly looked at Violet who was giving him some sort of look, "Just think of me as Han Solo, totally blind or whatever for most of the film," he laughed nervously.

"Well they did get married-," Sheen pointed out.

"Shut up, Sheen," Jimmy scowled at him, narrowing his eyes at that comment.

"Hey look! Violet's lighting up like one of those toys you get from amusement parks!" Carl suddenly shouted randomly. The others all paused and just stared at him for a moment.

"Say what?" Violet asked with a confused voice, looking down to see that the dot on top of her 'I' was blinking furiously. She looked up at the others, a smile spread across her face for the first time since they had known her, "They're alive! They're ALIVE!"

"Wait – what does that blinking mean?" Libby asked, pointing to her suit while she asked.

Violet grinned, "It means Dash got the message and sent one back – it means they're ok! They realize we're going to save them!" She instantly stood up, practically in a heroic manner. She reached down and yanked Jimmy out of his sitting position, "Come on now! Up! Up! Up," if someone who had known Violet for years had seen this, they wouldn't have believed it was her. Certainly Violet had improved her personality in recent time, being more positive and outgoing – and growing towards maturity. Even still she had her dark teenage moments, but she was so full of positive spirits that no one would have recognized her even if they recognized the black and violet hair. She grabbed Libby, Sheen, and Carl up to sitting positions, and then bent down and hugged Goddard whom had been resting off to the side part of the time.

She turned around to the others, in full spirit mode, "Alright! So – how are we getting there?" She almost started bouncing – if Dash had been there, he might have found it awkwardly creepy for his sister to be so – bouncy.

Jimmy grinned slyly, "There's only one way to travel."

"Oh jeez –," Libby moaned, putting her hand on her head when he stated the previous statement.

Ignoring her, Jimmy walked to Goddard, "Boy – the keys to the hover car, please?"

Instantly, out of Goddard's mouth popped out his tongue which neatly displayed the keys on it. Jimmy graciously took then, thanked his dog who then popped his tongue back in, and then pressed a button on what looked to be an alarm.

The others slight grimaced at the fact that Goddard had his tongue on the keys.

"Do robotic dogs have – robotic slobber?" Carl whispered questioningly to Sheen, and Sheen simply shrugged in response.

Within a matter of moments, the hover car came to a stop in front of them, floating just above the ground so they could get in.

"This time it's got a full tank of gas, right?" Libby asked, pointing at it dangerously as they started to board.

Jimmy snorted, "Hey – you make a mistake once and never forgiven from it."

"Cause Sheen was about to eat Carl, and they were calling everyone mirages – that's something you don't want to go through numerous times, get it?" Libby asked threateningly to Jimmy, who just smiled in response.

"Got it, Ms. Folfax."

She nodded approvingly, "That's Your Highness, to you Neutron," but she smiled slightly as she became the last to hop aboard, "But I'll let you get away with it this time."

**_TO BE CONTINUED ..._

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